Well I agree with you, I was disappointed by the Player's, while the work is better for the Gamemaster's.
But the Gamemaster's content is for a big part generic , not system depending, and they could use what is mature from Symbaroum.
As one of the other participant in the forum said, it might be too big a bone to chew for the team.
The editors are obviously interested in getting a chunk of the large 5E audience, but did not get what are the assets of the 5E system, that's my fear.
In parallel they took the decision to design many new game mechanics not used in 5E, that's very risky. They did not have time to reread their Player's obviously, so I am a bit concerned about the quality of play testing...
For example :
- the spell casters are debuffed compared to 5E, which is not bad and corresponds to the setting. The corruption mechanics seems original and can bring something to the game ;
but on the other hand, probably hoping to bring something new to the fighting classes, these approaches have many new rules and more powerful features compared to 5E (free advantages, 4 attacks at high level, etc etc). They are the dream of 5E power builders for some of them. So a gap will probably appear between spell casters and fighters at higher levels. This will probably turn the game boring. Balance between classes are a key point in 5E I feel, so the fighting classes don't need buffing if the spell casters are debuffed, they just need flavor.
- why so many approaches, I mean some are almost redundant (Bounty Hunter, Witch Hunter, Monster Hunter) with very close concepts, they are just made of features and the role play of these approaches is the same, and some look more like a background than a class (Former Cultist) ; a former profession is not very determining for the future know how of an adventurer...
So I hope there will be less approaches, with better design quality.
- design flaws : the alchemist traps can provoque an explosion on a "natural 1", but most of them don't need an attack roll, just a saving throw...
To get 5E's audience, I think the game will need 5E's important assets : rigorous rules, balance, everybody can shine...
Symbaroum is a flavorful world, it desserves a good system.
Apparently some people are thrilled by the approaches, so I may be wrong. Anyway, I don't think the game designers will rewrite that much before final release.
Let's hope I will be surprised.
As I understood it many of the Approaches are there to allow for a conversion of PCs between the different game engines for Symbaroum.
I would be interested to see a short high level adventure so you could test how the different classes feel. I guess I could always use the Standard D&D 5e monster book, but if the game testing phase is officially over now that feels a little bit pointless. In standard D&D the caster classes seem to have a reputation of outshining the martial classes at higher levels, so the nerfed state of the casters in Symbaroum (which is very much appropriate for the setting) in combination with the potentially buffed state of martials will be a very different experience for sure. But I am not a good person to judge it since most of my standard D&D games have been in the 1-12 level range.
I wished they had more of a real gameplay testing stage for the backers, because there were a lot of classes we didn't see until the alpha of the Player's Guide, and very little time to test it out. Especially if there will be no opportunity at all for us to give feedback on the changes they do after the feedback on the alpha. It would be nice to see a beta stage as well before final print. With that being said I am in no way claiming that my suggestions to the game is better than Jacob's and the rest of the team, I'm more looking for an opportunity to "pressure test" their design decision.